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COVID-19 can be opportunity to heal communities

We are living in a moment unlike any moment in history. And it may be key to healing ourselves and our communities.

History has produced wars and famines and moon landings and earthquakes. There have been revolutions and upheavals and technological breakthroughs. All were preceded by fear and uncertainty, and all helped shape our collective conscious. Still, they don’t compare in magnitude to the moment we are in now. Everyone, everywhere, is impacted.

Jerry Sparby(Photo: Submitted photo)

The coronavirus, or COVID-19, and the disruption it has caused the world over, has forced us to hit the pause button on our lives, to slow down. How we decide to dwell in this pause will chart our foreseeable future. Now is the time to reset our priorities and to take a good look at ourselves.

Our lives are filled with challenges. Some are big, some are small and many are products of our own doing. Fear of what others think of us. Fear of the unknown. Feeling inadequate or less than. Desperation. Isolation. All of these things have a way of creeping into our lives.

And when they do, they can take a toll on us and our families and our communities.

Many of these feelings underlie the uncertainties we are experiencing now. The coronavirus has brought them to the surface.

In the past week alone, I’ve heard people ask “Do you understand what is happening?” and “Do you think this will get worse?” And I’ve heard people express concerns like “If I get laid off, I have no idea how I will make my house payment or feed my kids.”

There is fear in people’s voices. But the coronavirus has done more than generate fear. It has exposed our common humanity. We are all human. We are all vulnerable. And we are all in this together.

This is our moment to slow down and breathe and to build deep and authentic connections with our families and neighbors. At no other point in history has one global event made it clearer that we are more alike than different, more dependent on one another than we imagined.

We should take a break from the stress and rigors of our normal routines, look at what’s in front of us and remember what matters. We might ask ourselves: What do I want in life? Am I spending enough time with the people I love? What am I trying to accomplish? What have I been avoiding?

While we practice “social distancing,” we are reminded of how important human interactions are to our well-being and happiness, and how often we take this for granted. Can we think of ways to more deeply connect with family and friends and neighbors? How can we begin to see our sameness and not our differences?

COVID-19 will someday become a thing of the past, and we will return to our normal lives. But normal doesn’t have to mean the same. Normal can be a world full of abundance. Normal can be communities built on love and compassion. It is up to us to decide how we will create the future.

Let’s embrace this collective pause and think of the ways we can heal ourselves and our communities. We can start by identifying the chronic stress in our lives and the feelings of fear and insecurity that prevent us from being our best selves. When we learn to let these things go, we can connect more deeply with our families and begin to build loving and prosperous communities.

Now is our moment to breathe. It may be the opportunity we’ve all been waiting for.

Jerry Sparby was principal at ROCORI Elementary for 20 years and taught for 17. He is a motivational speaker, self-help therapist and the executive director of the Yes Network, a community-based nonprofit in Central Minnesota, and Building a World of Love, a therapy and counseling practice in Los Angeles.